Tome XVII, no. 2 - 2024 (9)

EDITORIAL / Oana Laura Nica

Abstract: Narcissism is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon shaped by early experiences and with a significant impact on a person's relationships and overall well-being. Psychoanalysis invites us to a more comprehensive approach to narcissism that includes both individual and social dimensions and provides a valuable framework for understanding and treating narcissistic disorder, allowing patients to explore unconscious conflicts and develop more adaptive ways of relating to themselves and others. In the articles in this issue, the authors explore in personal research, primary narcissism but also the influence of the environment that favors the development of secondary narcissism, analyzing the link between narcissism and reality testing, that between narcissism and personal idiom, between transgenerational trauma and how it affects narcissism, all of these studies are anchored in the reality of today but also in the mythological universe.Read moreKeywords: .

1 - Oedipus Rex / Cleopatre Athanassiou Popesco

Abstract: Before delving into the analysis of Sophocles’ text, the author sets out to define the mythological background that underpins it. Thus, the first part of this study focuses on what precedes the character of Oedipus, much like how every human is born within a transgenerational chain. Oedipus’ birth is positioned not only within the succession of generations but also within the internal, fantasized scene of his immediate predecessor in this chain: his father, Laius. The Oedipal quest thus begins as a search for identity even before the play itself starts. The second part of this work is devoted to analyzing the play itself. Read moreKeywords: Oedipus complex, projective identifications, partial object, omniscience, depressive position, transgenerational

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2 - Echoes of Narcissus / Fulvio Mazzacane

Abstract: Starting from the myth of Narcissus and Echo (specifically the version in Ovid's Metamorphoses), I will explore themes that have been less examined in psychoanalytic reflections on narcissism: the role of Echo (not mentioned in Freud’s index), the violent circumstances of Narcissus's birth, the impact of prophecies and curses, Narcissus’s despair, and his transformation into a flower. Narcissism appears as a choice rather than a consequence of lacking a function that would enable us to navigate relational challenges without anguish. Myths confront us with unsolvable paradoxes. In the myth of Narcissus and Echo, the central issues are the complex search for identity and the drama inherent in relationality, with emotions such as despair and loneliness at play. After outlining the perspective of Bionian Field Theory, I will delve into some of the myth’s themes through key moments in Rita's analysis. The goal is to describe the narcissistic configuration with the understanding that Narcissus cannot be considered without Echo, as the myth fundamentally speaks of an “impossible unison.” Read moreKeywords: Bion, Echo, field theory, myth, Narcissus, unison

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3 - Narcissism and the reality-testing function / Gabriela Romaneț

Abstract: Among the structuring aspects of narcissism and the more conflictual, problematic dimensions that anticipate the psychopathological developments, this paper focuses on the aspects of drive and the destruction of the reality-testing function, which ultimately lead to disturbances in thought and relationships. I develop the mechanism of narcissistic syndrome formation, attempting to capture its formation phases frame by frame, until its rigid settling within the thought process, where there is no differentiation between the Weltanschauung and projections of relational fantasies. Narcissistic fantasies projected onto the other and within the internal object accommodate, in varying intensities, the grandeur, the self-sufficiency, or annihilation; the depreciation, the destruction, the entitlement, the reference, the pursuit, and the control. The emotional intensity accompanying these can set off a collapse within the psychotic core. Moreover, the calcification of symptoms into character traits imposes itself deeply in resistances to change and theories of thought, which makes the work of relational analysis particularly challenging. From the category of bipolar disorders with autistic, psychotic, or neurotic structures, I chose some vignettes that bring out the difficulty of restoring the reality-testing function and the weaving of some complex structures within the transfer-countertransfer relationship, to enable the creation of new relational architectures. The long-term psychoanalytic process and its session-by-session commitment by both the analyst and the analysand are proof of the profound need for the lost other. Read moreKeywords: reality-testing function, relational fantasies, projection, primary and secondary narcissism, sexual drive, bipolar disorder

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4 - Psychoanalytic hypotheses on Narcissism / Giovanni Stella, Antonino Gallo

Abstract: So called Narcissism has a multilayer structure. It' a kind of “onion”. Each model , historically emerged, enlights one or more layers of this structure. We have considered main models or hypotheses i.e freudian, kleinian, Kernberg, Kohut, Mitchell, Gabbard, Lash and so on. Some models are more explicit, others more implicit. All models have their usefullness and their limitations. All models have their inspiration. We pay particular attention to the bionian and postbionian field models. Finally we try to move on toward a more clinic domain, with a case psychoanalytic history and some crossed mild conclusions. Read moreKeywords: clinical complexity of narcissism, plurality of models emerged and available, bionian model of narcissism, postbionian field model of narcissism, narcissism as a onion, hypothetical nature of models

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5 - Narcissism. Psychogenetic, Technical Aspects and Countertransference Challenger / Irena Talaban

Abstract: The author offers an overview of the definitions of the concept of narcissism as presented by various authors. From the classic myth of Narcissus, enamored with or frightened by his own reflection, to the authors of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, narcissism has been approached from diverse perspectives. One such perspective is that of the “lyrical generation” or the “boomer children” (François Ricard), while another is that of the “contemporary Narcissists” (Christopher Lasch). René Girard's theory is also discussed, according to which narcissism is a variation of mimicry. From clinical ethnopsychiatry, which asserts that identity is transmitted from the group to the individual, to “gender theory” and “gender dysphoria”, the dynamics of narcissism represent a process with variable mechanisms, depending on the cultural context that ensures filiation and affiliation. Read moreKeywords: narcissism, metamorphosis, culture, identity, adolescence, psychoanalysis

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6 - Hurt Narcisssism and construction of identity / Fanny Houzé, Éric Sioufi, Irma Merkiled, Benjamin Marcepoil, Jinxiao Chen, Mareike Wolf-Fédida

Abstract: In psychopathology the concept of borderline patients in the early nineties is completely updated nowadays. The clinic of psychoanalytical psychotherapy shows that, today, patients suffer more and more from historical and social fractions. Hundred years ago, the early psychoanalysts thought that sexual liberation would help for more individual freedom but even after the 1968 movement, patients still suffer in the same way. The content has only changed. Narcissism goes together with identity and our modern times encourage the search of our own identity. The general tendency is much more about a struggle for reinforcement of narcissism. Two clinical examples about the transgenerational hurt (German women who were raped in wartime and the historical omerta about these deportations) and the phenomenon of tilt during the games (such as competitions of poker as an international attraction) are compared with some other clinical examples such as the lack of consent, which appeared with the # me too – movement, or the rising of radicalization. At the first glance, these cases are quite different but the nature of emptiness and the feeling of being in pieces are experienced in the same way for all patients. Actually, the interaction of broken narcissism and societal reconstruction is a new phenomenon in psychoanalytical approach. The authors, who are specialized in this kind of clinic, discuss how to deal with the frontiers of a transgenerational and societal unconscious in analysis or psychotherapy, looking for an individual (re)construction of narcissism and the concept of identity. Read moreKeywords: consent, identity, Narcissism, tilt, transgenerational trauma, reconstruction

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7 - On destiny and personal idiom, from Sigmund Freud to Cristopher Bollas / Daniela Luca

Abstract: Fate and Destiny are not terms included in psychoanalytic language, in metapsychology, although from the very beginning of the discovery of the Unconscious, Sigmund Freud was impacted by what repeats itself, what cannot be analysed, what overflows over generations of individual life. From Freud to contemporary psychoanalysis, the author attempts to delimit these concepts in order to reveal their significance for the individual's life as well as for clinical practice, when analysis comes to a standstill under the impact of Fate / Destiny, and when working through facilitates the rediscovery of one's own voice, one's own imprint, one's own idiom, as Christopher Bollas has said. Read moreKeywords: destiny, fate, fate neurosis, idiom, repetition compulsion, unanalysable

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8 - When we can see the mountains L’empatia psicoanalitica by Stefano Bolognini. / Daniela Andronache

Abstract: One of the topics proposed for debate for the Scientific Seminars of the Romanian Society of Psychoanalysis for the year 2024 was psychoanalytic empathy. Aside from the texts of Bion and Kohut on the subject, proposed as handouts for the discussion, a particular attention received the book on psychoanalytic empathy written by Stefano Bolognini. I propose here a review of this book as a valuable textbook for all analysts, beginners or well-established practicians. Read moreKeywords: .

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